M Is FOR MASHUP - July 10th, 2019
Discover What Pockage Is
By DJ Useo
"Pockage" is the title of my 82nd solo album. Following in the steps of past releases like "Profuseo", "Double Secret Album", & "Mashups For Cool Cats", this 19-track collection contains genre clash variety like you'll rarely experience. The tunes go from Rock to Pop to Hip Hop to Electronic in a startling manner.
I strived to merge the music in a way that interested me, & yet also would appeal to y'all. There's plenty of artists you'll know, all combined with welcome unknown ones. I started all the tracks live on decks, then saved the sections into a static mixing application which led to completion. This really sped up the entire process, resulting in more tracks than needed. I pared them down to one full "discs" worth, & hosted it for downloading.
There's mixes of Sia vs Legit Trip, Tom Petty vs Nero, Adam Lambert vs Ocktu, & plenty more bootleg-style audio combinations. I included cover art for all, so your eyes can indulge along with your ears. I never bother with videos for the cuts, as I can make 10, or more audio mashups in the time it takes me to create a video.
Here's the preview track "How Do You Want Toxygene" ( 2Pac vs The Orb vs Ganja Kru )
( sowndhaus.audio/track/13416/dj-useo-how-do-you-want-toxygene-2pac-vs-the-orb-vs-ganja-kru- )
If you take to these tunes as I expect, you can inundate yourself with past Useo albums from this page here
( djuseomashupalbums.blogspot.com/ )
Meanwhile, all my regular releases like single mashups, remixes, long sets, & podcasts remain
posted here
( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/ )
Expect another new album from me in about two months, as it's mostly finished now.
Have the Summer of good -
DJ Konrad Useo
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Trump and the Merchants of Detention (NY Times)
Every betrayal seems to profit the president and his friends.
Yascha Mounk: The Rapid Fall of the Left (The Atlantic)
Sunday's elections in Greece provide the strongest indication to date that the left is now in deep crisis.
The Secret Word is George Fenneman (thewritelife61)
George and Groucho remained friends long after the show was cancelled. They often got together before Groucho's death in 1977 at age 87. Groucho never lost his sense of humor. At one of their last visits, Groucho was in very frail health. Helping Groucho get across the room, George lifted him out of his wheelchair and carried him. He had his arms around his torso and began to shimmy him across the floor. Groucho's rasping voice said, "Fenneman, you always were a lousy dancer."
Lynn Buckle: Why is mythology having a moment? (Irish Times)
Pat Barker, Michael Hughes and Madeline Miller are among many modern writers reinventing the classics.
Lucy Ellmann: 'Did we really massacre Indians, enslave Africans and poison rivers for this hellhole?' (Irish Times)
Consumed by consumerism, the US is now the worst boy scout jamboree in history.
Donald Clarke: "Jim Jarmusch: 'The Dead Don't Die cast were paid in oatmeal'" (Irish Times)
There are only a few directors that even the most committed film fan could recognise from 100 yards. Jarmusch is one. The large waft of white hair - framing familiar prescription sunglasses - has been a feature of the movie community for some 35 years.
Michael Segalov: "Gloria Gaynor: 'The Holy Spirit grabbed me by the collar in 1985'" (The Guardian)
The singer, 69, on hating parties, being saved by God, and why "I Will Survive" survives.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
cages
Another immigrant in a cage.
Always a fan,
BSmasher
Thanks, Brain!
from Bruce
Anecdotes
Arturo Toscanini had poor eyesight - one of the reasons he memorized his scores was so that he wouldn't need to refer to them during performances or rehearsals. He once wanted perfection in the tinkling of some very small antique cymbals to be used in Berlioz' "Queen Mab" scherzo. Several musicians failed to meet Toscanini's standards, so Sam Borodkin - who played such instruments as the bass drum, glockenspiel, tam-tam, and gong - said that he would try to do it. Mr. Borodkin succeeded brilliantly - but through the use of a trick. Instead of using two antique cymbals and hitting them against each other, he used a metal triangle stick and hit it against one antique cymbal. Because Toscanini had such poor eyesight, and because Mr. Borodkin was bent over his music stand, hiding the metal triangle stick, the trick succeeded in fooling Maestro Toscanini.
Even as a young conductor, Arturo Toscanini felt strongly about his art. When he was scheduled to conduct his first concert in Turin, he first rehearsed the orchestra in the orchestra pit, but he also wanted to rehearse the orchestra on the stage because that was where the orchestra would be during the concert and he wanted to make sure the orchestra would sound right from that location. However, the manager of the theater felt that rehearsing on the stage was not necessary, so Maestro Toscanini said that he would not conduct without the rehearsal. When the time of the concert came, Toscanini was home in bed. The manager came looking for home, but Toscanini still refused to conduct. The concert was given at a later date - after Toscanini had rehearsed the orchestra on stage.
Arturo Toscanini had a phenomenal memory and conducted without a score - but he had a reason for doing so. His eyesight was not very good, and to see the notes he would have had to bring his eyes very close to the score, so a score was useless to him while conducting. After Toscanini began to conduct without a score, other conductors began to imitate him in a pretentious way - at the beginning of a performance, some conductors would walk to the conductor's podium, close the opened score, then begin to conduct. Horn player Harold Meek of the Boston Symphony Orchestra believes that many conductors would benefit from having a score in front of them, as did such fine conductors as Serge Koussevitzky and Sir Georg Solti.
Famed conductor Arturo Toscanini disliked giving interviews and to get out of giving them, he occasionally played tricks on reporters. Samuel Chotzinoff, the music critic of the New York World, once had an interview with Mr. Toscanini, but was surprised that the Maestro had only a very weak grasp of English. There was nothing to do but to give up on the interview and leave, which Mr. Chotzinoff did. Later, Mr. Chotzinoff found out that Mr. Toscanini spoke English much better than he had pretended. Eventually, the two men became friends, and Mr. Toscanini was pleased with Mr. Chotzinoff's praise of his acting ability as demonstrated the first time they met.
Conductor Arturo Toscanini never gave encores. While giving the first performance of Euryanthe by Carl Maria von Weber, Toscanini was at first pleased by the applause of the audience following the overture. However, the audience kept applauding and demanding an encore. For 10 minutes, Toscanini stood with his back to the audience, and he grew angrier and angrier because he wished to proceed with the performance. Finally, he turned around, screamed "No bis (encore)" to the audience, broke his baton and threw the pieces at the audience, then left the stage. The premiθre was postponed until the following week.
Conductor Arturo Toscanini once wrote composer Richard Strauss for permission to give the first performance in Italy of Strauss' Salome. After receiving permission, Toscanini began to prepare the piece. However, he later discovered that Strauss himself was going to conduct Salome in Italy the week before Toscanini was scheduled to conduct it. Immediately, Toscanini took the train to Vienna, where he called on Strauss and said to him, "As a musician I take off my hat to you, but as a man, I put on 10 hats."
Maestro Arturo Toscanini once was terribly angry at tenor Leo Slezak because he once swallowed a quarter note during a performance. Mr. Slezak begged for forgiveness, which Maestro Toscanini eventually gave. This forgiveness made Mr. Slezak, a large man, so happy that he picked up Toscanini, a small man, and kissed him on both cheeks. This enraged Toscanini more than before, and he stayed enraged at Mr. Slezak for two weeks.
Conductor Arturo Toscanini had a fabulous memory. At the beginning of a rehearsal, a clarinetist told Maestro Toscanini that something was wrong with his clarinet and he couldn't sound B-flat. Maestro Toscanini was silent a moment as he thought about all the works to be rehearsed that day, then he told the clarinetist, "It is all right. There isn't any B-flat in your parts this afternoon."
Arturo Toscanini, the famous conductor, used to show his displeasure when it was merited at rehearsals. He once got so angry that he tried to break his baton, but it bent and wouldn't break. He then tried to tear his handkerchief in pieces, but it was made of good material and wouldn't tear. So Toscanini took off his jacket and tore that to shreds.
Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, mayor of New York City, loved music. Once he was asked to conduct the band of the New York Fire Department at Carnegie Hall. Learning that the director of the hall planned to make the concert a special occasion, La Guardia told him, "Please, no fuss. Just treat me the way you would treat Toscanini."
Someone was amazed at Arturo Toscanini's phenomenal memory - he conducted without a score in front of him - and asked, "Tell me, maestro, how do you learn all those scores from memory?" Toscanini replied brusquely, "I learn them."
Conductor Arturo Toscanini was passionate about music and wanted all of his musicians to put their blood into their work the way he did. At a rehearsal, he told his orchestra, "Put your blood! I put my blood!"
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Spot the difference
You've seen the information about the crown she wore. You've seen the hideous, ill-fitting suit Predator wore, but the attached file presents it all nicely.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mailed dear old dad a couple of jigsaw puzzles.
He can't walk down to the local river (although he calls it a 'crick') to fish anymore and he hates not doing 'something'.
Probably should find more puzzles.
2019 Lineup
Farm Aid
With dairy farms in Wisconsin experiencing unprecedented struggles, Farm Aid is coming to the state to lend a hand.
The nonprofit is bringing its annual, star-studded benefit concert to Wisconsin for the second time in its 34-year history.
Board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews - plus at least nine other acts - will perform at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy Sept. 21.
Farm Aid was last held in Wisconsin in 2010 at Miller Park, for the organization's 25th anniversary.
Wisconsin has led the country in farm bankruptcies for three years in a row. The state lost almost 700 dairy farms in 2018, an unprecedented rate of nearly two a day. More than 300 more dairy farms in Wisconsin have since shut down, including 90 in April alone.
Farm Aid
Permit Denied
Woodstock 50
The permit required to stage the troubled Woodstock 50 festival at its most recent proposed site, Vernon Downs in the town of Vernon near Utica in Upstate New York, has been denied, Oneida County Administrator Anthony Picente Jr. tells Variety.
The promoters have five days to appeal the decision, Picente says, but "what they have submitted to date has not met many of the requirements" to stage the festival and the chances of it taking place in Oneida Country seem "highly unlikely," he added.
"It's been chaotic," he said of the past few weeks' scramble to stage the festival at Vernon Downs, which has no camping facilities, after the previous proposed venue, Watkins Glen International speedway, pulled out last month. "Originally it was going to be a three-day festival, but then [the producers] said instead it would be three one-day events, with all 65,000 or however many people vacating the grounds at the end of each day."
Asked about the likelihood that producers could appeal the decision and the festival could be staged at Vernon Downs, Picentre allowed that "anything is possible," but noted, "We could have done this with a year or 16 months advance [planning], but to do it in three to six weeks is really a near impossibility from a public safety and health standpoint," he continued. "As someone who as here for 1999 [Woodstock's troubled 30th anniversary concert in nearby Rome, N.Y., which was marred by violence and fires], some names have changed but it's largely the same situation."
Just five weeks from the festival, which is scheduled to take place on the weekend of Aug. 16-18, Woodstock 50 has no venue, nor have tickets gone on sale. The festival, which is scheduled to feature a blockbuster lineup including Jay-Z, Dead & Co., Miley Cyrus and many others, has been plagued by organizational and financial difficulties since it was announced: The original financial backer, Dentsu Aegis, pulled out in May; Watkins Glen International speedway, followed last month.
Woodstock 50
Fell By One Third
Butterfly Numbers
Butterfly numbers have dropped by one third in the last two decades in the US, echoing declines seen in Europe. These figures raise alarm bells for the health of other insect populations, because butterflies face similar environmental changes and are used as a proxy for studying insects in general.
Much of what we currently know about declining insect populations comes from European monitoring programmes.
To find out if similar patterns were occurring in the US, Tyson Wepprich of Oregon State University and his colleagues turned to volunteers at the Ohio Lepidopterists, who have been collecting weekly data on butterfly sightings across the state over the last two decades.
"We analysed their data to estimate trends for 81 species over this time and found that many more are declining than increasing," says Wepprich. "Overall, the number of butterflies you'd expect to see has fallen by 33%, or at a rate of 2% per year."
As temperatures increased, Wepprich and his team found that species from the south moved north into Ohio and were growing in number, while the number of northern species shrunk.
Butterfly Numbers
Bad Break
Breaking Bad
That mystery reunion Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul have been teasing for weeks is actually just some artisanal booze
Over the last few weeks, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul have been teasing a mysterious project that reunites the Breaking Bad co-stars. Given what we know, it was reasonable to assume that this project-which the duo teased in a series of social media posts and photos-would be none other than the forthcoming Breaking Bad movie. Directed by series creator Vince Gilligan, that movie is said to center on Paul's Jesse Pinkman, and may or may not (but probably totally does) co-star Cranston in some capacity. Today, Cranston and Paul delivered on the promise of their new collaboration by unveiling what is easily the most unholy of sick burns-the kind of thing that YouTube reaction videos were made for:
Surprise, it's an artisanal Mezcal. See, it's funny because you thought you were getting a trailer for that Breaking Bad movie, which is totally reasonable since it shot last year and is presumably finished already. But instead you get what is probably an overpriced "artisanal" booze product, the love child of these two buds, or "Dos Hombres," if you will. Psych! Those two guys done gone and fooled ya real good. Breaking Bad? More like breaking your dignity, dummies. You know, artisanal Mezcal is great for sterilizing mega-sick-burns.
Breaking Bad
"Tradition"
McConnell
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Quisling)., on Tuesday confirmed that he is a descendant of slave owners and reiterated that he still opposes government reparations for descendants of American slaves.
At a press conference following a closed-door luncheon with Senate Republicans, McConnell was asked whether he was aware that two of his great-great-grandfathers were slave owners in Alabama before the Civil War and whether the revelation would cause him to reconsider his position on reparations.
"I find myself once again in the same position as President [Barack] Obama. We both oppose reparations and we both are the descendants of slave owners," he said, before moving on to another question.
The majority leader's great-great-grandfathers, James McConnell and Richard Daley, owned a total of at least 14 slaves in Limestone County, Alabama - all but two of them female, according to the county "Slave Schedules" in the 1850 and the 1860 censuses.
During the 2008 election, an amateur genealogist found that on his mother's side, Obama had a great-great-great-grandfather named George Washington Overall who owned two male slaves in Kentucky. The genealogist, William Reitwiesner, also found that Obama's great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, Mary Duvall, also owned a pair of slaves.
McConnell
On The Decline
US Life Expectancy
The average life expectancy in the U.S. has been on the decline for three consecutive years.
A baby born in 2017 is expected to live to be 78.6 years old, which is down from 78.7 the year before, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.
The last three years represent the longest consecutive decline in the American lifespan at birth since the period between 1915 and 1918, which included World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic, events that killed many millions worldwide.
Before the recent decline, life expectancy had been steadily rising in the U.S. - which is to be expected of an advanced nation, particularly one that spends more money per citizen on health care than any other country.
The national suicide rate has increased by 33% since 1999. In 2017 alone, that rate went up by 3.7%.
US Life Expectancy
Geoscientists Were Wrong
Tamu Massif
Back in 2013, Tamu Massif - a giant underwater volcano off the coast of Japan - stole Hawaii's crown as the largest single volcano in the world. But it's not a true single volcano at all.
Researchers published a paper in 2013 in the journal Nature Geoscience concluding that Tamu Massif was a giant "shield volcano" - even bigger than Hawaii's Mauna Loa, which rises 30,085 feet (9,170 meters) from the ocean floor and covers thousands of square miles with its ancient, solidified magma flows. Now, in a new paper, researchers conclude that the 2013 paper was wrong, and Tamu Massif isn't a shield volcano. The crown, according to this new research, returns to Mauna Loa.
Shield volcanoes form when a single volcanic plume spills enough lava over time, and that lava spreads far enough, to form a bulge-shaped mountain around the volcano's opening. Mauna Loa is a shield volcano. So are most of the much smaller volcanoes in Iceland. (Cone-shaped volcanoes, like Mount St. Helens, aren't shields but "stratovolcanoes.") In 2013, researchers thought that Tamu Massif formed in this same way. But the new paper suggests they're wrong.
Tamu Massif is a shallow volcanic system, with gently sloping sides; it extends about 400 miles (650 kilometers) wide, rising about 2.5 miles (4 km) tall. The massive underwater volcano lies along part of the mid-ocean ridge system, the world-encircling series of boundaries between different tectonic plates. This enormous system is, in a sense, the true largest volcano in the world, because magma can bulge upward and spill out as lava on top of the crust all along its range. But that volcanism doesn't look like the volcanism that forms a shield volcano.
Though Tamu Massif sits along the ridge, researchers thought it formed when a plume of magma burst from its center and flowed outward as lava to cool. That's why they claimed in 2013 it was a single-shield volcano. Now, researchers think it formed when, as part of the ridge's ongoing volcanism, magma squeezed its way slowly up into the crust, causing material that was already there to bulge and spread outward across the seafloor.
Tamu Massif
In Memory
Rip Torn
Rip Torn, the free-spirited Texan who overcame his quirky name to become a distinguished actor in theater, television and movies and win an Emmy in his 60s for his comedy turn on TV's "The Larry Sanders Show," has died. He was 88.
After acclaimed performances in "Cross Creek," ''Sweet Bird of Youth" and other dramas, Torn turned to comedy to capture his Emmy as the bombastic, ethically challenged television producer in "The Larry Sanders Show." Created by and starring Garry Shandling, HBO's spoof of TV talk shows aired from 1992 to 1998 and is widely credited with inspiring such satirical programs as "30 Rock" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Born Elmore Rual Torn, the actor adopted the name Rip in his boyhood, following the tradition of his father and uncle. It was the subject of endless ridicule during his early days as a stage actor in New York, and fellow drama students urged him to change it.
With customary stubbornness, he refused, eventually overcoming the jokes with a series of powerful performances that led to his being regarded, along with Marlon Brando, Paul Newman and James Dean, as actors of a postwar generation who brought tense realism to their craft. He was also a political activist who joined James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte and other cultural and civil rights leaders for a frank and emotional 1963 meeting with then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy about the country's treatment of blacks.
Torn made his film debut in 1956 in an adaptation of Tennessee Williams' "Baby Doll," and within a few years was a respected film and television actor, working on occasions with his second wife, Geraldine Page. At the Actors Studio, he gained the attention of Elia Kazan, who hired him as understudy to Alex Nicol, then playing Brick Pollitt in the Tennessee Williams classic, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Toward the end of the show's Broadway run, Torn took over the role of the alcoholic, emotionally troubled former football hero. He did so billed against his wishes as Elmore Torn.
Other film credits included "Critics Choice" and "The Cincinnati Kid." In Albert Brooks' "Defending Your Life," he was featured as a gregarious attorney in the afterlife.
His career hit a dry spell in the 1970s, and he blamed it on the buzz in Hollywood at the time that he was difficult to work with, a reputation sealed when tension on the set of "Easy Rider" led to his being replaced by Jack Nicholson for the 1969 release and missing out on one of the biggest hits of the era.
He managed to keep working in small projects in theater, films and TV, returning to the mainstream in 1983 with "Cross Creek," in which he played table-smashing backwoodsman Marsh Turner. The role brought him his only Oscar nomination, for best supporting actor.
In 1994, actor-director Dennis Hopper said on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" that Torn once pulled a knife in a New York restaurant as he complained about being replaced in "Easy Rider." He sued Hopper for slander and won a $475,000 judgment.
Torn and his first wife, actress Ann Wedgeworth, had a daughter, Danae, before divorcing. In 1963 he married Page, with whom he had co-starred in the touring production and movie version of "Sweet Bird of Youth." They had three children, a daughter, Angelica, and twins Jon and Tony, and appeared in productions together until her death in 1987. Torn also had two children, Katie and Claire, with actress Amy Wright.
Rip Torn
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